Why this series?
“The State of Our Arts & Culture Organizations - A Community Dialogue”
Voices of the Community, in collaboration with BAVC Media, presents "The State of Our Arts & Culture Organizations" - a 10-episode special series. This dynamic platform, available in both live and virtual formats, encompasses radio, television, and podcast broadcasts. Bringing together leaders from arts and culture organizations, funders, and the public, these multi-media dialogues delve into the profound impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on our creative sector.
Our aim is to cultivate a learning community that not only identifies but also explores solutions and actions to stabilize, sustain, diversify, and scale up our arts and culture sector. Spanning from January to December 2023 through April 2024, this series builds upon Voices of the Community's previous three-year, 105-episode series on Covid-19's Impact on Nonprofits and BAVC Media's SF Commons' acclaimed "SF Nonprofit Spotlight."
By addressing the economic and operational challenges faced by arts and cultural organizations in San Francisco, we shed light on both the issues and the solutions. Together, we navigate the path towards the ongoing sustainability and thriving of these vital organizations in the new world shaped by an ongoing pandemic. Join us on this journey as we explore, learn, and advocate for the arts and culture sector.
Episode 1: Non-Profit Board of Directors Development & Governance
In this episode which is focused on nonprofit Board Development and Governance features the voices of Michelle "Mush" Lee, the Executive Director, of Youth Speaks, Julie Phelps, artistic director and the Executive Director, of CounterPulse, Meredith Suttles, the Managing Director and CEO, of Marin Theatre Company along with Jay Mitchell a professor of law and the founding director of the Organizations and Transactions Clinic at Stanford Law School.
Episode 2: ABBA Summit - Opening & Keynotes
Welcome to the second episode of our special series of community dialogues “The State of Our Arts & Culture Organizations,” We worked with Arts for a Better Bay Area to co-produce their State of the Arts Summit 2023, on June 28th, 2023 with the theme “Rebuilding Our Communities”.
Episode 3: ABBA Summit - Economic Recovery in the Arts
Our third episode of this series features the panel discussion focused on how governmental support, funding, artists, and audiences have changed and what arts and cultural organizations are doing to support, reinvent, and invigorate the sector.
Episode 4: ABBA Summit - Revisiting Housing Solutions
This episode is part of our special series on how the arts and culture sector is coming back from the Covid 19 pandemic and features voices from our co-production of Arts For a Better Bay Area’s State Of The Arts Summit on June 28th 2023. This episode features our panelists from our breakout session “Housing for the Artist Workforce: Revisiting Artists’ Housing Solutions”
Episode 5: ABBA Summit - Economic Development through the Arts
This episode is part of our special series on how the arts and culture sector is coming back from the Covid 19 pandemic and features voices from the Co-Production of Arts For A Better Bay Area State of The Arts Summit held at the Strand Theatre in San Francisco on June 28th 2023. This episode features panelists from our breakout panel discussion “Regional Economic Development Through the Arts” on how the Arts are being utilized in economic and community development coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Episode 6: Sustainable Funding & New Business Models
This episode is from our November 4th 2023 live event co-production with the Petaluma Arts Center, our broadcast partners KPCA 103.3fm and Petaluma Community Access TV and BAVC Media. This special event was focused on exploring the question, “How Do Community Based Arts Organizations Secure Sustainable Funding?” Our wonderful panel and audience members covered sub topics such as Exploring Different Business Models, Hybrid Productions - Live and Streaming, bringing arts organizations and government committees to support artists along with ideas around creating a fund endowment.
Episode 7: ABBA Summit - Proposition E, Arts Impact Endowment & Grants for the Arts Update & Discussion
This episode focuses on nonprofit Board Development and Governance, we feature the voices of Michelle "Mush" Lee, the Executive Director, of Youth Speaks, Julie Phelps, artistic director and the Executive Director, of CounterPulse, Meredith Suttles, the Managing Director and CEO, of Marin Theatre Company, Jay Mitchell a professor of law and the founding director of the Organizations and Transactions Clinic at Stanford Law School along with my co-host Paula Arrigoni the Executive Director of BAVC Media.
Episode 8: REP-SF’s [Race & Equity in all Planning of San Francisco] Citywide People’s Plan For Affordable Housing
This episode is part of our ongoing Special Series on How the Arts and Culture sector is coming back from the covid 19 pandemic. In our co-production of Arts For A Better Bay Area’s [ABBA] State of the Arts Summit on June 28th 2023 one of the breakout sessions was focused on the work in our community to develop affordable housing for our creative workforce.
Episode 9: How to Buy Your Performance Space | CAST & CounterPulse Real Estate Model
In this episode we look into a post COVID-19 pandemic market place where affordable housing and real estate pose significant challenges, a revolutionary idea emerged from the ABBA summit's breakout session: leveraging post-pandemic market dynamics to empower arts and cultural organizations to acquire their own performance spaces.
Episode 10 Affordable Housing For Artist through the Artist Space Trust
Welcome to the final episode of our series on affordable housing for the creative workforce, a collaboration with Arts for a Better Bay Area, featured at the State of the Arts Summit. In this episode, we explore a groundbreaking initiative from the ABBA summit's breakout session “Housing for the Artist Workforce: Revisiting Artists’ Housing Solutions”:
“To the cultural workers in the room, whose passion and work is to amplify, uplift, champion, and support the artist, you are leaders. Not followers, not dependents, you’re not sitting at the children’s table begging for more gruel. You helm, you guide, you protect, and you are the front line of your organization taking blows and maybe dealing a few. So together we are a powerful base, we are a powerful voice, and together we rise. This is a time when the art community’s creative expertise and skills and talents are being relied upon. And finally, really seen as major contributors to the local economy. Let’s acknowledge we have always been part of the recovery efforts. ”
Thanks to our Sponsors
Voices of the Community is supported by a grant from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, whose Arts and Culture grants ensure vibrant work is created, new voices are celebrated, and artists and audiences inclusive of the Bay Area’s diverse communities and cultures have opportunities to thrive. Find out more at ZFF dot org
Voices of the Community is supported by a grant from the Peaceful World Foundation dedicated to fostering a culture of global peace through the promotion of hosted conversations and education. You can learn more at peaceful world foundation dot org.
Thanks to our CoProduction Partner
BAVC Media is a community hub and resource for media makers in the Bay Area and across the country, serving several thousand freelancers, filmmakers, job-seekers, activists, and artists every year. BAVC Media provides access to media making technology, storytelling workshops, a diverse and engaged community of makers and producers, services and resources. Get Training, participate in the MediaMaker Fellowship, become a member and produce shows through the SF Commons program.
Donate to Voices of the Community
We are fiscally sponsored by Intersection for the Arts, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, which allows us to offer you tax deductions for your contributions. Please consider making a donation to help us provide future shows just like this one. If you want to send us a check, please make checks payable to Intersection for the Arts and write [Voices of the Community] in the memo line of your check. This ensures that you’ll receive an acknowledgment letter for tax purposes, and your donation will be available for our project.
Welcome to our ongoing series on Covid-19’s impact on nonprofits and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay. We will continue to shine a spotlight on the nonprofits, and small businesses that make up the fabric of our community along with the founders and staff who are struggling to deal with the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on their operations, services, and sustainability until we can all get to the other side of the pandemic.
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